Something Beautiful

  Yesterday was my 47th birthday.  Most women cringe to announce their age as they get older.  Some of them even go as far as claiming to be 29 again!  Not true for me.  I have learned over the years to appreciate each and every birthday and to be so thankful to God for allowing me to celebrate once again.  Being thankful does not seem to come naturally for most of us, though.  We would rather groan and complain and fuss about what has gone wrong.  Or we'd rather lament about all those things that we don't have but wish we did.  Then there are some who fill their days with negative thoughts or feelings and seem to enjoy it.  I would love to say that I am one of those positive people who constantly see the good in everything and thank God for his part in it.  But, alas, I am not one of those people.  Every day I struggle falling into the trap of negativity and to be honest it is not me but God's power that brings me up out of the muck of life.

  Near our new home there is a wetland area that we drive by to get to a major shopping area of town.  Now that the Kansas heat and humidity of the summer have risen to really uncomfortable levels the largest water area of the wetlands has turned green with algae. One day I was driving past with the air conditioner blasting on high to cool down after just walking from house to car.  I was hot, grouchy and in a complaining mood when I looked at this area and thought YUCK!- that looks absolutely disgusting!  I wondered why on earth the city would keep this area protected when it was such an eyesore.  Then I saw it.  Standing in this muck on stilt legs was a bird of the most beautiful blue color I had ever seen.  I was amazed.  Then I was thankful for that bird.

  For you see, friends, that bird made me think.  Our lives on this Earth are filled with muck.  The muck of loneliness and despair.  Of hatred and murder.  Of jealousy and rage.  Of disease and war.  Of self absorption and loathing.  Of coveting and theft.  Of cynicism and unbelief.  Of fuss and complaint.  Of Sin.  We struggle in this muck of what looks disgusting and it threatens to bring us down.  But there is One who looks beyond the mess of life and has made us the beautiful blue bird.  What he did for us makes us clean and beautiful.  His death on the cross made us new.  He takes us up out of the quagmire and offers us new life.  


 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come." 
2 Corinthians 5:17


So, my friends, be thankful each day!  Celebrate each birthday with joy!  For God works every day to make you something beautiful.


Suggestions:
Feeling less than beautiful in this bog of life?  Listen to "Beautiful Things" by Gungor to be reminded that you are!